Help Has Arrived and It’s FREE!

Now you can be everywhere at once.

That’s right I said everywhere at once. Have you ever wanted some assistance in your classroom, found yourself pondering what it might be like to have an extra hand, or laughed at the idea of there being more than one of you? Now you can.

You will need to start with an iPad and a little bit of time investment but then it is truly possible thanks to a new app available in the iTunes store called Educreations. Educreations is a whiteboard and yet so much more. However, this innovative app truly can revolutionize your classroom and potentially change the way you support scholars.

What are the advantages to this whiteboard app by Educreations? Essentially what this app allows you to do is be in more than once place at the same time. Educreations is a recordable whiteboard. So what, big deal you say, well it’s so much more too.

Educreations allows teachers to create video tutorials. The app not only records the lesson you’re presenting (as you would at the white board in your classroom) but also allows you to narrate by recording your voice. Educreations allows you to instantly pull pictures from the iPad photo stream and the web with just the click of a button. You can even use the iPad to take pictures and immediately and directly import them into your lesson. The app lets you reposition, adjust the size and rotate all photos. In addition Educreations allows you to annotate and erase on the pictures and the screen. Does your lesson require grid paper, graphing paper, or lined paper? No problem, Educreations permits users to easily change the background they need for a particular lesson.

The real value of the Educreations app is in the sharing. The app saves all your presentations and lets you to share them in a number of user friendly methods. You can upload your presentation to Facebook, email the presentation, or even Tweet the presentation with the ease of pressing a button. However, you can also copy the embedded code for the presentation and instantly copy/paste it into a blog or website. Educreations is so easy to use and did I mention that it’s FREE.

Now you ask, how does this allow me to be in more than one place at a time?

Well imagine you prerecorded some of these lessons, now you can leave the iPad with one group of students while working with another. The lessons would still be you instructing the students. If you’ve been considering implementing the workshop model or centers during your instructional time this app is perfect.

You can record a tutorial and leave it for students to constantly refer to during the lesson. Your video could explain and provide students with step-by-step examples.

Maybe you have a student who is absent, well this allows the student to see your lesson from home or you can provide the child the presentation the next day for them to catch up on the lesson(s) missed.

How about the students who need extra help once they get home? Now you can even be present in the home every student by preparing a video that follows up on your lessons.

Don’t forget about the parents who want to help their scholars but don’t understand the content. This app allows you to provide relevant information and assistance through video demonstrations which parents can also view. Now parents will be able to dictate the exact same strategies and skills you’re emphasizing in class.

You could even use this app to begin attempting the flipped classroom model.

Below is a quick video (created using Educreations) on how to get started with the app at the very basic level.



In addition to the app, Educreations also has a website where you can go and find many other tutorials that have been created by others all over the world. According to TC Crunch, Educreations had more than 50,000 teachers create and share lessons in just their first six months after launching and the platform has been used by more than 12,000 schools in 117 countries. Educreations is definitely something worth considering and trying for those of you looking to find new and innovative ways to support your scholars using technology.

For more information about technology and instruction please follow me on Twitter @SPSMathK5